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Tuesday, March 15, 2016

New Days, Back-Up Plans, and Doctor Appointments.

Today is a brand new day! Danielle is off to Michael's to pick up more pink card stock. Her and her roommate have been cutting and cutting and cutting! I'm glad we have the Cricut to use, but it still takes a long time. It's all good though. Once these invites are all done I'll be moving to the bridal bouquet. We still have lots to do.

Yesterday Danielle and I talked a lot about back-up plans. Back-up plans for a number of things. We just feel we need to be ready if and when certain things fall through because things just happen, right!? We are still finalizing all those details, but I've started rounding up people with trucks or vans that could help us move things, and made a few calls to people to help us with a few things we still need. I'm so grateful to everyone for their offers to help. It means so much! One friend I spoke with, who has done many many weddings for her own family, reminded me again that the reception was just a big party and the one thing that matters most is that Danielle is going through the temple. I appreciated my friends reminder. She is awesome!

Kevin got a phone call from Social Security today. His case has been assigned to a specialist....finally! Tomorrow he has his appointment with the same doctor he saw while in the Rehab Center. We have a laundry list of things to discuss with him. 1) disability paperwork (that is if they haven't already completed and returned it) 2) a permanent handicap plaque for the car. It's so hard to get him out of the car in a normal parking spot. 3) a permanent wheelchair. Kevin will need to be measured and fitted for it. 4) physical therapy and moving Kevin to a facility closer to home. So, it's going to be a busy appointment. Lots and lots to discuss. I'm just glad I will be able to be there.

I'm beginning to think some people think I'm keeping Kevin locked away here in the house or something, but that's simply not true. Kevin has always had absolutely no problem speaking his mind and that is still true today. I couldn't keep him "locked away" even if I wanted to, and of course I don't want to do that! I want my ornery, active, busy with the kids and I, husband back! I hate that he doesn't feel well or that he is in so much pain. Why is that so hard for some people to understand? In fact, a couple of weeks ago his Mom stopped by to drop something off. I had just got out of the shower and couldn't get to the door so Lexi answered. When she was done, She was in her car and driving off by the time Kevin made it outside, by himself I might add, to try and talk to her. He just moves a lot slower now. It takes time for him to get in his wheelchair and through the house to the front door and outside. So on good days he is up and active. On bad days he is down and only up for those things he needs to be up for. But keeping him away from anyone is not my goal. Being protective of him, yes, I'm totally guilty of that. But that's different than keeping someone away from something. Kevin still makes decisions for Kevin and our family for that matter. The only time I step in to make his decisions is when he gets disoriented every time he is admitted for a urinary tract infection or the latest hospital admit for leg pain. That's it. So please don't go there. I'm not keeping Kevin away from anyone or anything that he doesn't want to be kept from. I do step in and help Kevin when he has his bad days which have happened a lot lately over the past few months, but I know he would do the same for me if the tables were turned. Enough said about that.

Its Tuesday morning now. Everyone is up and we are getting ready to head over to Phoenix for Kevin's appointment. I stayed up until 1 a.m. working on the invites alone. We are putting the couple's initials on the front of the invite and that has turned out to be the most time consuming part, in my opinion. I got as far as getting the initials on about 1/2 of the remaining cards (Danielle did a bunch before she brought them to me), I got the details page glued in to about 1/2 and the photo of the couple glued in a few. I'll try and get the ones I have supplies for done after Kevin's appointment. I sent a text to Danielle to tell her how many initials we still needed to finish them all. These invites are super cute and saving us a ton of money, but they sure are a pain in the bum to make. Im not even kidding! We've had four people work on them so far and sounds like the poor groom might just have to get involved to before we're done. I'm sorry Chance.

Kevin and I just got back from his appointment with the doctor that treated him at Barrow's. That doctor is always so thorough with everything. We explained that Kevin had three admits to the hospital for bladder infections and he thought that was way too many in the past six months. He asked about possible kidney or bladder stones and thought they may need to do some further testing. He is working on a referral to a Urologist to have some tests done. The doctor said the Urologist may need to use a camera to take a look inside and go around and around and around. Kevin said he wasn't very excited about the thought of the around and around part. I'd say that flat our freaked him out! In the meantime he prescribed a medicine to help try to prevent bladder infections. Who knew there was such a thing?? Why doesn't every woman alive know about this? Or at least those that get them often?? He said a couple a year (bladder infections) is normal but three in the past six months is something they need to check into. I'm just glad they will get to the bottom of it! That makes me happy. Then he saw Kevin's spasms and prescribed another medicines to help with those and thought it would help ease some of the pain Kevin deals with every day. He said the degree of pain Kevin is in could be caused by a number of things. A full bladder could cause some pain, sitting too long in his wheelchair could cause pain, then the leg spasms, and his normal back issues could all be contributing to his pain level always being through the roof. He said the medicine to calm down the spasm will take that factor out of the equation. He then drew us a picture of someone with a spinal cord injury and explained why Kevin was experiencing the spasms and how the medicine will work. He said he wanted to get another MRI done to see what was going on with the nerves in his spine. He wants to be able to compare the films to the MRI they took while Kevin was in the hospital. Then he ordered another MRI to be done at Barrow's. This one will have to he done with sedation at Barrow's. Kevin can't handle laying flat on his back for very long and his left leg tries to come up to his chest and won't go back down when he does. So, Kevin will have that done in about a month with another follow-up visit with this doctor in 6 weeks to discuss the changes in the MRI's. Kevin was also referred to a Neurologist for the nerve pain to be evaluated for that. We have a consult for a permanent wheelchair. We have the form for the permanent handicap plaque for the car. Kevin is not cleared for travel, especially with all the pain he is in. The doctor said he could not recommend it. They only thing we did not talk about was physical therapy. As it turns out, the doctor wants to wait until they know if there is any improvement with Kevin's spinal cord injury and the MRI's before making the referral to another therapist closer to home. Kevin mentioned that he has been walking with a walker from his bed to our hall bathroom using a walker. The doctor was pleased with that because Kevin was barely doing that when he left the hospital. The one thing the doctor asked about was a possible pain pump that would work like an epidural or a nerve stimulator. The doctor forgot the reason Kevin was in this condition and you could tell he felt bad for making that suggestion as soon as he said it. They were implanting a nerve stimulator when something happened in surgery. Poor guy. Kevin and I think the doctor is LDS. He just looked just like a missionary today and he handles himself like a member. Plus you know how you can spot garments under clothing sometimes. We still don't know for sure but if we have our guess he is LDS. Plus he has 4 kids and is busy with them when he gets home from work. We may have to ask him next time we go to see him.

After Kevin was settled in the house I talked to Danielle on the phone for a while. She gave me her work schedule for the week so we could make plans to get more things done. Once I was off the phone Lexi was asking to go to the dollar store. She wanted some kind of candy and Kevin was asking for bubble gum. He always wants bubble gum. We ended up browsing through the clothing department at one of the stores near by and all the isles of the dollar store. I can't get over all of the things you can get at the dollar store now! I've decided that whenever I need certain things it might be better just to check out the dollar store first. No joke! I couldn't believe it. I guess I need to take the time to browse through some of those stores more often. Yes, that's how I spent one of the days of my sabbatical...the doctor and the dollar store. It's everything starting with the letter D kind of day. Doctor. Dollar Store. LOL! Later tonight it will be a D & C kind of thing when I get to work on the invitations again.

Kevin said while I was gone a neighbor of ours was spraying the weeds in our front yard with a pesticide. Kevin no sooner said we needed to get Kyle out there spraying those when we pulled up to the house after his appointment and here was our neighbor spraying. Kevin then said, is our house bugged? I told him no, it's probably the car because that's where we talked about getting the weeds sprayed just as we pulled into the driveway. We laughed about that and then he said that he and our neighbor had a good chat together. We have awesome neighbors! Thanks Jackson for thinking of us.

Tonight Lexi and I are making dinner. She always browns the ground beef and I do the rest. She likes to do that step. Frankly, I'm happy for the help and she can brown the ground beef any time she wants! Thanks Lexi. She is becoming my cook in the family. She is dying to make truffles. Every time we walk through a store that has supplies that could possibly be used for them she always makes a comment. She is determined to try to make them for the wedding. Lexi is becoming my little baker, candy maker, and all around good cook. I'll do whatever it takes to encourage this new found love of cooking anyway I can.

Can you tell I'm having trouble with spacing today? Too much of it? It's my laptop acting up again. Sorry folks! Whenever I add an image it eats up more space than needed. I do better adding pics from my phone. Frustrating. I tried fixing it, but as you can see it didn't help. Oh well. I'm trying to learn to compromise in several areas of my life lately or even more than I care to admit. Even though there is a whole lot of blank space in this post, at least we have one. That's my compromise. 😊.

Can I also tell you I'm ready to be done, FINISHED, with this wedding. Even before I get started. This weekend really messed me up. So much that I had forgotten certain things. Not good. I think I just need to take some time for myself and I'll be better after. I promised myself when I started my sabbatical that I'd give myself one full day to myself. That hasn't happened yet. Tonight I'm taking an evening. After that it's full steam ahead. I'll be fine after tonight.